scholarly journals Potential Biodiversity Connectivity in the Network of Marine Protected Areas in Western Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Assis ◽  
Pierre Failler ◽  
Eliza Fragkopoulou ◽  
David Abecasis ◽  
Gregoire Touron-Gardic ◽  
...  

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) must function as networks with sufficient stepping-stone continuity between suitable habitats to ensure the conservation of naturally connected regional pools of biodiversity in the long-term. For most marine biodiversity, population connectivity is mediated by passively dispersed planktonic stages with contrasting dispersal periods, ranging from a few hours to hundreds of days. These processes exert a major influence on whether threatened populations should be conserved as either isolated units or linked metapopulations. However, the distance scales at which individual MPAs are connected are insufficiently understood. Here, we use a biophysical model integrating high-resolution ocean currents and contrasting dispersal periods to predict connectivity across the Network of MPAs in Western Africa. Our results revealed that connectivity differs sharply among distinct ecological groups, from highly connected (e.g., fish and crustacea) to predominantly isolated ecosystem structuring species (e.g., corals, macroalgae and seagrass) that might potentially undermine conservation efforts because they are the feeding or nursery habitats required by many other species. Regardless of their dispersal duration, all ecological groups showed a common connectivity gap in the Bijagós region of Guinea-Bissau, highlighting the important role of MPAs there and the need to further support and increase MPA coverage to ensure connectivity along the whole network. Our findings provide key insights for the future management of the Network of MPAs in Western Africa, highlighting the need to protect and ensure continuity of isolated ecosystem structuring species and identifying key regions that function as stepping-stone connectivity corridors.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arieanna C Balbar ◽  
Anna Metaxas

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an area-based conservation strategy commonly used to safeguard marine biodiversity and ecosystem services. Population connectivity governs the exchange of individuals among spatially fragmented habitats and is an essential criterion in the design of MPAs. However, detailed computational methods for connectivity are inconsistently applied in management decisions. We reviewed the scientific and management literature to explore the use of connectivity in MPAs located in countries with advanced marine spatial planning. Only 7.8% of 739 MPAs considered connectivity as an ecological criterion, although it has been increasingly used since 2007, suggesting progress in spatial conservation planning towards the use of ecological conservation objectives. In most cases, connectivity was measured implicitly using either rules of thumb or size and spacing guidelines. Of the MPAs that considered connectivity, 67% were for state marine conservation areas or reserves in California and commonwealth marine reserves in Australia. This pattern indicates substantial geographic biases and significant differences in conservation planning and prioritization among countries. We suggest that the incorporation of connectivity in conservation planning needs to become more accessible to practitioners. Prioritizing connectivity as an ecologically important criterion in MPA design will more adequately address metapopulation persistence and recovery.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arieanna C Balbar ◽  
Anna Metaxas

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an area-based conservation strategy commonly used to safeguard marine biodiversity and ecosystem services. Population connectivity governs the exchange of individuals among spatially fragmented habitats and is an essential criterion in the design of MPAs. However, detailed computational methods for connectivity are inconsistently applied in management decisions. We reviewed the scientific and management literature to explore the use of connectivity in MPAs located in countries with advanced marine spatial planning. Only 7.8% of 739 MPAs considered connectivity as an ecological criterion, although it has been increasingly used since 2007, suggesting progress in spatial conservation planning towards the use of ecological conservation objectives. In most cases, connectivity was measured implicitly using either rules of thumb or size and spacing guidelines. Of the MPAs that considered connectivity, 67% were for state marine conservation areas or reserves in California and commonwealth marine reserves in Australia. This pattern indicates substantial geographic biases and significant differences in conservation planning and prioritization among countries. We suggest that the incorporation of connectivity in conservation planning needs to become more accessible to practitioners. Prioritizing connectivity as an ecologically important criterion in MPA design will more adequately address metapopulation persistence and recovery.


Author(s):  
Jérôme FOURNIER ◽  
Andrea De CASTRO PANIZZA

Este artigo apresenta os diferentes aspectos da proteção do ambiente litorâneo abordando três pontos essenciais. O primeiro evoca a instalação de áreas marinhas protegidas (AMP) em um contexto socioeconômico e político, destacando seu funcionamento e a noção de “ efeito reserva”. O segundo mostra a importância das AMP na proteção da biodiversidade marinha. Finalmente, o terceiro ponto exemplifica a avaliação do meio natural e aborda, de maneira geral, o valor econômico das espécies e da “Natureza” na ocorrência de degradação. Contributions of the marine protected areas for the conservation and management of the marine environment Abstract This article presents the various aspects of the littoral environmental protection by approaching three important points. The first evokes the installation of the marine surfaces protected in a socio-economic and political context. The operation of the reserves and the concept of “ reserve effect “ are explained. The second explains the interest of MPA to protect the marine biodiversity. Lastly, the third point shows the evaluation of the natural environment and more generally of the economic value of the species and “Nature” in the event of degradation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7814
Author(s):  
Susana Perera-Valderrama ◽  
Sergio Cerdeira-Estrada ◽  
Raúl Martell-Dubois ◽  
Laura Rosique-de la Cruz ◽  
Hansel Caballero-Aragón ◽  
...  

In the Mexican Caribbean, 15 marine protected areas (MPAs) have been established for managing and protecting marine ecosystems. These MPAs receive high anthropogenic pressure from coastal development, tourism, and fishing, all in synergy with climate change. To contribute to the MPAs’ effectiveness, it is necessary to provide a long-term observation system of the condition of marine ecosystems and species. Our study proposes the establishment of a new marine biodiversity monitoring program (MBMP) focusing on three MPAs of the Mexican Caribbean. Five conservation objects (COs) were defined (coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, marine turtles, and sharks-rays) for their ecological relevance and the pressures they are facing. Coral reef, seagrass and mangroves have multiple biological, biogeochemical and physical interactions. Marine turtles are listed as endangered species, and the status of their populations is unknown in the marine area of the MPAs. Elasmobranchs play a key role as top and medium predators, and their populations have been poorly studied. Indicators were proposed for monitoring each CO. As a technological innovation, all information obtained from the MBMP will be uploaded to the Coastal Marine Information and Analysis System (SIMAR), a public, user-friendly and interactive web platform that allows for automatic data management and processing.


2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 765-796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glen Wright ◽  
Julien Rochette

Abstract In recent years, the international community has become increasingly aware of the growing threats to marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (abnj), and international discussions on a new international legally binding are underway. In parallel, some States, through regional organisations, have progressively extended their activities into abnj, particularly through the development of area-based management tools (abmts). In this article, we consider how actors in the Western Indian Ocean (wio) might engage in abnj governance. In particular, we develop some possible scenarios for developing abmts in the wio, including through the development of fisheries closures, the establishment of marine protected areas (mpas), and the adoption of abmts under the auspices of relevant international organisations. We conclude that while the wio is currently not the most advanced region in terms of ongoing efforts to improve the governance of abnj, there are already some positive signals and promising options for the future.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 4450
Author(s):  
Vanessa Hull ◽  
Christian J. Rivera ◽  
Chad Wong

The world’s oceans face unprecedented anthropogenic threats in the globalized era that originate from all over the world, including climate change, global trade and transportation, and pollution. Marine protected areas (MPAs) serve important roles in conservation of marine biodiversity and ecosystem resilience, but their success is increasingly challenged in the face of such large-scale threats. Here, we illustrate the utility of adopting the interdisciplinary telecoupling framework to better understand effects that originate from distant places and cross MPA boundaries (e.g., polluted water circulation, anthropogenic noise transport, human and animal migration). We review evidence of distal processes affecting MPAs and the cutting-edge approaches currently used to investigate these processes. We then introduce the umbrella framework of telecoupling and explain how it can help address knowledge gaps that exist due to limitations of past approaches that are centered within individual disciplines. We then synthesize five examples from the recent telecoupling literature to explore how the telecoupling framework can be used for MPA research. These examples include the spatial subsidies approach, adapted social network analysis, telecoupled qualitative analysis, telecoupled supply chain analysis, and decision support tools for telecoupling. Our work highlights the potential for the telecoupling framework to better understand and address the mounting and interconnected socioeconomic and environmental sustainability challenges faced by the growing number of MPAs around the world.


2006 ◽  
Vol 63 (7) ◽  
pp. 1481-1495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel S Holland ◽  
Kurt E Schnier

Fisheries managers in the United States are required to identify and mitigate the adverse impacts of fishing activity on essential fish habitat (EFH). There are additional concerns that the viability of sessile noncommercial species, animals that are habitat dependent and (or) are themselves constituents of fishery habitat, may be threatened by fishing activities. We propose a system of individual habitat quotas (IHQ) to achieve habitat conservation and species protection cost effectively. Individual quotas of habitat impact units would be distributed to fishers with an aggregate quota set to maintain a target habitat "stock". Using a dynamic, spatially explicit fishery simulation model, we explore the efficiency and effectiveness of an IHQ policy versus marine protected areas (MPAs) for conserving habitat-dependent, sessile species of unknown spatial distributions. Our findings indicate that an IHQ policy with a conservatively established habitat target is better suited to the protection of sessile nontarget species than a rotating or fixed MPA policy.


2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 152 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Vanderklift ◽  
T. J. Ward

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are one of the main tools for protecting marine biodiversity, but they are often selected on the basis of little or no ecological data. As a result, there is a risk that MPAs will not successfully protect marine biodiversity. We propose an operational framework to help prioritize the need for information, and to direct the subsequent collection of appropriate biological data. The framework consists of 7 steps: (1) formulating clearly-defined objectives, (2) a broad-scale classification based on easily accessible surrogates, (3) identifying biological variables for detailed survey, (4) assessing the utility of surrogates, (5) designing and implementing the biological survey, (6) modelling and using inferential statistics to optimize the use of existing knowledge, and (7) validating candidate areas. Each step in the framework involves identifying areas of uncertainty, and the risks that a MPA will fail to achieve its intended objectives. The aim of our operational framework is to make the risks and uncertainties clear, and to force decisions to be made to minimise their potential impact on the outcome of the MPA selection process. We identify four key ecological uncertainties in MPA identification: (1) the reliability of surrogates, (2) spatial uncertainty in survey data, (3) temporal uncertainty in the patterns of the biodiversity in the MPA, and (4) uncertainty in the degree to which important ecological processes will be maintained. We conclude that the key to success in a MPA selection process is the use of clearly specified objectives for the MPA and an explicit assessment of uncertainties involved. We contend that without a competent ecological basis, new MPAs may be little more than the political exercises to appease lobby groups, and are unlikely to be effective tools in protecting marine biodiversity from continuing decay.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 9572
Author(s):  
Veronica Relano ◽  
Maria Lourdes Deng Palomares ◽  
Daniel Pauly

In the last decades, several targets for marine conservation were set to counter the effects of increasing fishing pressure, e.g., protecting 10% of the sea by 2020, and establishing large-scale marine protected areas (LSMPAs). Using the ‘reconstructed’ catch data for 1950 to 2018 made available by the Sea Around Us initiative, we show that the declaration of an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in 1983 by the U.S.A. and its protection by the U.S. Coast Guard had a much bigger impact on catches around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands than the subsequent creation of a LSMPA. This is similar to Pitcairn Islands, a UK territory. Trends differed sharply in the Galapagos and New Caledonia, where neither their EEZ declaration nor the LSMPA (by Ecuador in 1988 and by France in 2014) stopped local fisheries from continuous expansion. Our results also demonstrate that in the studied multizone LSMPAs continued local fishing induces a ‘fishing down’ effect wherein the mean trophic level (TL) declined, especially in the Galapagos, by 0.1 TL per decade. Stakeholders’ responses to a short questionnaire and satellite imagery lent support to these results in that they documented substantial fishing operations and ‘fishing the line’ within and around multizone LSMPAs. In the case of EEZs around less populated or unpopulated islands, banning foreign fishing may reduce catch much more than a subsequent LSMPA declaration. This confirms that EEZs are a tool for coastal countries to protect their marine biodiversity and that allowing fishing in an MPA, while politically convenient, may result in ‘paper parks’ within which fishing can cause the same deleterious effects as in wholly unprotected areas.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAFAEL Almeida MAGRIS ◽  
Martinho Marta-Almeida ◽  
Jose Alberto Monteiro ◽  
Natalie Ban

Analysis that link hydrological processes with oceanographic dispersion offer a promising approach for assessing impacts of land-based activities on marine ecosystems. However, such an analysis has not yet been customised to quantify specific pressures from mining activities on marine biodiversity including those from spillages resulting from tailing dam failure. Here, using a Brazilian catchment in which a tailing dam collapsed (Doce river) as a case study, we provide a modelling approach to assess the impacts on key ecosystems and marine protected areas subjected to two exposure regimes: (i) a pulse disturbance event for the period 2015-2016, following the immediate release of sediments after dam burst, which witnessed an average increase of 88% in sediment exports; and (ii) a press disturbance phase for the period 2017-2029, when impacts are sustained over time by sediments along the river’s course. We integrated four components into impact assessments: hydrological modelling, coastal-circulation modelling, ecosystem mapping, and biological sensitivities. The results showed that pulse disturbance causes sharp increases in the amount of sediments entering the coastal area, exposing key sensitive ecosystems to pollution (e.g. rhodolith beds), highlighting an urgent need for developing restoration strategies for these areas. The intensity of impacts will diminish over time but the total area of sensitive ecosystems at risk are predicted to be enlarged. We determined monitoring and restoration priorities by evaluating and comparing the extent to which sensitive ecosystems within marine protected areas were exposed to disturbances. The information obtained in this study will allow the optimization of recovery efforts in the marine area affected, and valuation of ecosystem services lost.


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